Saturday, April 02, 2011

Chutzpah

Okeechobee woman found
naked with marijuana in car
after fight with boyfriend.

Benjamin Netanyahu has now given even new meaning to the Yiddish word “chutzpah.” Can you believe that after all these years of violating one U.N. resolution after another, far more violations than probably all other countries combined, he is now asking the U.N. for help? I guess there is another flotilla on the way to Gaza containing what Bibi thinks are elements wanting to provoke a confrontation. Imagine that, a confrontation with people who want to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians. This might interfere with the Israeli plan, short of mass murder or gas chambers, to eliminate Palestinians entirely. Obviously we can’t have that. Not only that, he is also warning the U.N. about other nations recognizing a Palestinian State and threatening some kind of “unilateral actions” if the U.N. recognizes them. I’m not sure what he has in mind but I suspect he means trying to legitimize the illegal settlements Israel has already established on the West Bank. It is well past time for Israel colonialism and genocide to be permanently curbed and the Palestinians given a fair shake for once.

I confess to being unable to understand anything about President Obama’s “Libyan Adventure” or whatever you want to call it. Perhaps it really was merely a humanitarian adventure designed to prevent the mass slaughter of civilians, with no intention of taking out Gadaffi. Somehow I doubt it. The goal, however unstated, simply has to have something to do with getting rid of the dictator, otherwise it makes no sense. And we do apparently have our CIA in Libya contacting individuals who may be successors if Gadaffi goes. I can understand why Obama and NATO don’t want to be accused of regime change, but it clearly is just a pretense. The supposed no-fly zone was far more than just that as Gadaffi’s forces on the ground were attacked as well, leading the Arabs to complain that the no-fly zone went far too far. Now there is talk of a stalemate with the rebels in charge of the East and Gadaffi remaining in charge in the West. That may indicate that it was merely a humanitarian gesture but that doesn’t make much sense as there will be nothing to prevent Gadaffi from doing whatever he wants in at least some portions of the country. The whole thing strikes me as an incredible farce unless the motive is actually something more than humanitarian, which I suspect it was/is. Somewhere it was said that it is really an attempt by NATO to take control of the Mediterranean. As the U.S. is the dominant force in NATO that means the U.S. is intimately involved in such a venture. This does make sense to me. By why, then, are U.S. planes apparently quitting the scene? Is this merely to keep up appearances? It is known that both Britain and France have more at stake in this enterprise than the U.S. Does that imply that we have merely acted as a “hired gun” to do their dirty work for them? That doesn’t seem likely. Now it seems to be the plan that Gadaffi will eventually be squeezed out by his own people, the sanctions will prevent him from doing much of anything and he will eventually have to go. Maybe that’s the strategy, but I’m sure I don’t know. Furthermore, I don’t know how anyone can know much of anything out of this apparent misadventure, obfuscated by nonsensical claims and goals to the point of absurdity. I keep resisting the notion that Obama is either stupid, dishonest, subject to terrible advice, or all three of those things, but I confess his behavior vis-à-vis both Afghanistan and Libya seem to me pretty unpalatable. The claim of humanitarianism rings hollow when you realize that similar civilian slaughters are taking place elsewhere, as on the Ivory Coast, Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, and so on, without the same concern expressed for Libya. By now I regard Obama’s Foreign Policy as akin to what Churchill said of Russia: "Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

Somewhere I read that t we allowed Saudi Arabia to send troops to suppress uprisings in Bahrain in return for their vote for a no-fly zone over Libya. What exactly does it mean that we “allowed” them to do this? Are we now in charge of Saudi Arabia? And what does all this have to do with Iran? Everyone seems desperate to keep Iran from having any influence in the Middle East, do they expect Iran to only have influence in South America? Why should Iran not have more influence in the Middle East than the U.S., after all it is their part of the world and they do have national interests of their own. Why should we not have relations with Iran as we do with other countries like Turkey, India, Russia, etc.? It can’t be because we truly fear they will develop a (basically useless) nuclear bomb. Perhaps it is just me, not having sufficient information to understand what is going on, what secret deals are really involved in all this, what the genuine motives are, and so on. It used to be pretty simple, we supported all kinds of nasty dictators as long as they kept the oil flowing and cooperated. We depended on Israel to be our major “partner” in the Middle East in spite of their myriad war crimes and colonialism, but now it seems the Middle East is in a shambles, no one knows who the players are without a guide, our hypocritical Foreign Policy is falling apart, as are we.

There are two fine articles I would recommend to you today. One by Chris Hedges on Truthdig, “This Time We’re Taking the Whole Planet With Us,” and “Buy Cable TV, Get a Free Gun: Welcome to the New America,” by Don Monkerud on Smirking Chimp.

LKBIQ:
If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.
George Bernard Shaw